Test of specializing sphinx autodoc

README.md

Testing Sphinx Autodoc

This is my attempt at specializing the behavior of sphinx autodoc for certain classes... it's not working.

I want to create a specialized version of the autoclass:: directive that allows me to modify the produced doc-string for certain classes. Searching the sphinx source, I found that the autoclass directive is created via the Documenter object. In the test_extension.py file I try to register my own specialized documenter; it looks like this:

from six import class_types
from sphinx.ext.autodoc import ClassDocumenter
from testmodule import Foo


class MyClassDocumenter(ClassDocumenter):
    objtype = 'myclass'
    priority = 20  # higher priority than ClassDocumenter

    @classmethod
    def can_document_member(cls, member, membername, isattr, parent):
        print('checking if can document', member)
        return isinstance(member, class_types) and issubclass(member, Foo)

    def get_doc(self, encoding=None, ignore=1):
        doc = super(MyClassDocumenter, self).get_doc(encoding, ignore)
        # do something to modify the output documentation
        doc[0].insert(0, "ADD SOMETHING TO THE DOC")
        return doc

def setup(app):
    app.add_autodocumenter(MyClassDocumenter)

When trying to build the documentation, though, it results in an "Unknown directive" error:

$ make html
sphinx-build -b html -d _build/doctrees   . _build/html
Running Sphinx v1.4.1
making output directory...
loading pickled environment... not yet created
building [mo]: targets for 0 po files that are out of date
building [html]: targets for 1 source files that are out of date
updating environment: 1 added, 0 changed, 0 removed
checking if can document <class 'testmodule.Foo'>                                                                                              
checking if can document <function Foo.bar at 0x102745bf8>

/Users/jakevdp/github/gists/sphinx-test/testmodule.py:docstring of testmodule.Foo:0: ERROR: Unknown directive type "py:myclass".

.. py:myclass:: Foo
   :module: testmodule

   ADD SOMETHING TO THE DOC
   ADD SOMETHING TO THE DOC
   A foo object
   
   
   .. py:method:: Foo.bar(x)
      :module: testmodule
   
      do a bar thing
looking for now-outdated files... none found
pickling environment... done
checking consistency... done
preparing documents... done
writing output... [100%] index                                                                                                                 
generating indices... genindex py-modindex
writing additional pages... search
copying static files... WARNING: html_static_path entry '/Users/jakevdp/github/gists/sphinx-test/_static' does not exist
done
copying extra files... done
dumping search index in English (code: en) ... done
dumping object inventory... done
build succeeded, 2 warnings.

Build finished. The HTML pages are in _build/html.

conf.py

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
#
# testmodule documentation build configuration file, created by
# sphinx-quickstart on Sun Sep 18 20:19:16 2016.
#
# This file is execfile()d with the current directory set to its
# containing dir.
#
# Note that not all possible configuration values are present in this
# autogenerated file.
#
# All configuration values have a default; values that are commented out
# serve to show the default.

import sys
import os

sys.path.insert(1, os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)))

# If extensions (or modules to document with autodoc) are in another directory,
# add these directories to sys.path here. If the directory is relative to the
# documentation root, use os.path.abspath to make it absolute, like shown here.
#sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('.'))

# -- General configuration ------------------------------------------------

# If your documentation needs a minimal Sphinx version, state it here.
#needs_sphinx = '1.0'

# Add any Sphinx extension module names here, as strings. They can be
# extensions coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom
# ones.
extensions = [
    'sphinx.ext.autodoc',
    'test_extension'
]

# Add any paths that contain templates here, relative to this directory.
templates_path = ['_templates']

# The suffix(es) of source filenames.
# You can specify multiple suffix as a list of string:
# source_suffix = ['.rst', '.md']
source_suffix = '.rst'

# The encoding of source files.
#source_encoding = 'utf-8-sig'

# The master toctree document.
master_doc = 'index'

# General information about the project.
project = u'testmodule'
copyright = u'2016, jake'
author = u'jake'

# The version info for the project you're documenting, acts as replacement for
# |version| and |release|, also used in various other places throughout the
# built documents.
#
# The short X.Y version.
version = u'1.0'
# The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
release = u'1.0'

# The language for content autogenerated by Sphinx. Refer to documentation
# for a list of supported languages.
#
# This is also used if you do content translation via gettext catalogs.
# Usually you set "language" from the command line for these cases.
language = None

# There are two options for replacing |today|: either, you set today to some
# non-false value, then it is used:
#today = ''
# Else, today_fmt is used as the format for a strftime call.
#today_fmt = '%B %d, %Y'

# List of patterns, relative to source directory, that match files and
# directories to ignore when looking for source files.
# This patterns also effect to html_static_path and html_extra_path
exclude_patterns = ['_build', 'Thumbs.db', '.DS_Store']

# The reST default role (used for this markup: `text`) to use for all
# documents.
#default_role = None

# If true, '()' will be appended to :func: etc. cross-reference text.
#add_function_parentheses = True

# If true, the current module name will be prepended to all description
# unit titles (such as .. function::).
#add_module_names = True

# If true, sectionauthor and moduleauthor directives will be shown in the
# output. They are ignored by default.
#show_authors = False

# The name of the Pygments (syntax highlighting) style to use.
pygments_style = 'sphinx'

# A list of ignored prefixes for module index sorting.
#modindex_common_prefix = []

# If true, keep warnings as "system message" paragraphs in the built documents.
#keep_warnings = False

# If true, `todo` and `todoList` produce output, else they produce nothing.
todo_include_todos = False


# -- Options for HTML output ----------------------------------------------

# The theme to use for HTML and HTML Help pages.  See the documentation for
# a list of builtin themes.
html_theme = 'alabaster'

# Theme options are theme-specific and customize the look and feel of a theme
# further.  For a list of options available for each theme, see the
# documentation.
#html_theme_options = {}

# Add any paths that contain custom themes here, relative to this directory.
#html_theme_path = []

# The name for this set of Sphinx documents.
# "<project> v<release> documentation" by default.
#html_title = u'testmodule v1.0'

# A shorter title for the navigation bar.  Default is the same as html_title.
#html_short_title = None

# The name of an image file (relative to this directory) to place at the top
# of the sidebar.
#html_logo = None

# The name of an image file (relative to this directory) to use as a favicon of
# the docs.  This file should be a Windows icon file (.ico) being 16x16 or 32x32
# pixels large.
#html_favicon = None

# Add any paths that contain custom static files (such as style sheets) here,
# relative to this directory. They are copied after the builtin static files,
# so a file named "default.css" will overwrite the builtin "default.css".
html_static_path = ['_static']

# Add any extra paths that contain custom files (such as robots.txt or
# .htaccess) here, relative to this directory. These files are copied
# directly to the root of the documentation.
#html_extra_path = []

# If not None, a 'Last updated on:' timestamp is inserted at every page
# bottom, using the given strftime format.
# The empty string is equivalent to '%b %d, %Y'.
#html_last_updated_fmt = None

# If true, SmartyPants will be used to convert quotes and dashes to
# typographically correct entities.
#html_use_smartypants = True

# Custom sidebar templates, maps document names to template names.
#html_sidebars = {}

# Additional templates that should be rendered to pages, maps page names to
# template names.
#html_additional_pages = {}

# If false, no module index is generated.
#html_domain_indices = True

# If false, no index is generated.
#html_use_index = True

# If true, the index is split into individual pages for each letter.
#html_split_index = False

# If true, links to the reST sources are added to the pages.
#html_show_sourcelink = True

# If true, "Created using Sphinx" is shown in the HTML footer. Default is True.
#html_show_sphinx = True

# If true, "(C) Copyright ..." is shown in the HTML footer. Default is True.
#html_show_copyright = True

# If true, an OpenSearch description file will be output, and all pages will
# contain a <link> tag referring to it.  The value of this option must be the
# base URL from which the finished HTML is served.
#html_use_opensearch = ''

# This is the file name suffix for HTML files (e.g. ".xhtml").
#html_file_suffix = None

# Language to be used for generating the HTML full-text search index.
# Sphinx supports the following languages:
#   'da', 'de', 'en', 'es', 'fi', 'fr', 'hu', 'it', 'ja'
#   'nl', 'no', 'pt', 'ro', 'ru', 'sv', 'tr', 'zh'
#html_search_language = 'en'

# A dictionary with options for the search language support, empty by default.
# 'ja' uses this config value.
# 'zh' user can custom change `jieba` dictionary path.
#html_search_options = {'type': 'default'}

# The name of a javascript file (relative to the configuration directory) that
# implements a search results scorer. If empty, the default will be used.
#html_search_scorer = 'scorer.js'

# Output file base name for HTML help builder.
htmlhelp_basename = 'testmoduledoc'

# -- Options for LaTeX output ---------------------------------------------

latex_elements = {
# The paper size ('letterpaper' or 'a4paper').
#'papersize': 'letterpaper',

# The font size ('10pt', '11pt' or '12pt').
#'pointsize': '10pt',

# Additional stuff for the LaTeX preamble.
#'preamble': '',

# Latex figure (float) alignment
#'figure_align': 'htbp',
}

# Grouping the document tree into LaTeX files. List of tuples
# (source start file, target name, title,
#  author, documentclass [howto, manual, or own class]).
latex_documents = [
    (master_doc, 'testmodule.tex', u'testmodule Documentation',
     u'jake', 'manual'),
]

# The name of an image file (relative to this directory) to place at the top of
# the title page.
#latex_logo = None

# For "manual" documents, if this is true, then toplevel headings are parts,
# not chapters.
#latex_use_parts = False

# If true, show page references after internal links.
#latex_show_pagerefs = False

# If true, show URL addresses after external links.
#latex_show_urls = False

# Documents to append as an appendix to all manuals.
#latex_appendices = []

# If false, no module index is generated.
#latex_domain_indices = True


# -- Options for manual page output ---------------------------------------

# One entry per manual page. List of tuples
# (source start file, name, description, authors, manual section).
man_pages = [
    (master_doc, 'testmodule', u'testmodule Documentation',
     [author], 1)
]

# If true, show URL addresses after external links.
#man_show_urls = False


# -- Options for Texinfo output -------------------------------------------

# Grouping the document tree into Texinfo files. List of tuples
# (source start file, target name, title, author,
#  dir menu entry, description, category)
texinfo_documents = [
    (master_doc, 'testmodule', u'testmodule Documentation',
     author, 'testmodule', 'One line description of project.',
     'Miscellaneous'),
]

# Documents to append as an appendix to all manuals.
#texinfo_appendices = []

# If false, no module index is generated.
#texinfo_domain_indices = True

# How to display URL addresses: 'footnote', 'no', or 'inline'.
#texinfo_show_urls = 'footnote'

# If true, do not generate a @detailmenu in the "Top" node's menu.
#texinfo_no_detailmenu = False

index.rst

Welcome to testmodule's documentation!

Contents:

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

API Documentation

.. automodule:: testmodule
   :members:

Indices and tables

• :ref:`genindex`
• :ref:`modindex`
• :ref:`search`

Makefile

# Makefile for Sphinx documentation
#

# You can set these variables from the command line.
SPHINXOPTS    =
SPHINXBUILD   = sphinx-build
PAPER         =
BUILDDIR      = _build

# User-friendly check for sphinx-build
ifeq ($(shell which $(SPHINXBUILD) >/dev/null 2>&1; echo $$?), 1)
	$(error The '$(SPHINXBUILD)' command was not found. Make sure you have Sphinx installed, then set the SPHINXBUILD environment variable to point to the full path of the '$(SPHINXBUILD)' executable. Alternatively you can add the directory with the executable to your PATH. If you don\'t have Sphinx installed, grab it from http://sphinx-doc.org/)
endif

# Internal variables.
PAPEROPT_a4     = -D latex_paper_size=a4
PAPEROPT_letter = -D latex_paper_size=letter
ALLSPHINXOPTS   = -d $(BUILDDIR)/doctrees $(PAPEROPT_$(PAPER)) $(SPHINXOPTS) .
# the i18n builder cannot share the environment and doctrees with the others
I18NSPHINXOPTS  = $(PAPEROPT_$(PAPER)) $(SPHINXOPTS) .

.PHONY: help
help:
	@echo "Please use \`make <target>' where <target> is one of"
	@echo "  html       to make standalone HTML files"
	@echo "  dirhtml    to make HTML files named index.html in directories"
	@echo "  singlehtml to make a single large HTML file"
	@echo "  pickle     to make pickle files"
	@echo "  json       to make JSON files"
	@echo "  htmlhelp   to make HTML files and a HTML help project"
	@echo "  qthelp     to make HTML files and a qthelp project"
	@echo "  applehelp  to make an Apple Help Book"
	@echo "  devhelp    to make HTML files and a Devhelp project"
	@echo "  epub       to make an epub"
	@echo "  epub3      to make an epub3"
	@echo "  latex      to make LaTeX files, you can set PAPER=a4 or PAPER=letter"
	@echo "  latexpdf   to make LaTeX files and run them through pdflatex"
	@echo "  latexpdfja to make LaTeX files and run them through platex/dvipdfmx"
	@echo "  text       to make text files"
	@echo "  man        to make manual pages"
	@echo "  texinfo    to make Texinfo files"
	@echo "  info       to make Texinfo files and run them through makeinfo"
	@echo "  gettext    to make PO message catalogs"
	@echo "  changes    to make an overview of all changed/added/deprecated items"
	@echo "  xml        to make Docutils-native XML files"
	@echo "  pseudoxml  to make pseudoxml-XML files for display purposes"
	@echo "  linkcheck  to check all external links for integrity"
	@echo "  doctest    to run all doctests embedded in the documentation (if enabled)"
	@echo "  coverage   to run coverage check of the documentation (if enabled)"
	@echo "  dummy      to check syntax errors of document sources"

.PHONY: clean
clean:
	rm -rf $(BUILDDIR)/*

.PHONY: html
html:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b html $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/html
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished. The HTML pages are in $(BUILDDIR)/html."

.PHONY: dirhtml
dirhtml:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b dirhtml $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/dirhtml
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished. The HTML pages are in $(BUILDDIR)/dirhtml."

.PHONY: singlehtml
singlehtml:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b singlehtml $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/singlehtml
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished. The HTML page is in $(BUILDDIR)/singlehtml."

.PHONY: pickle
pickle:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b pickle $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/pickle
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished; now you can process the pickle files."

.PHONY: json
json:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b json $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/json
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished; now you can process the JSON files."

.PHONY: htmlhelp
htmlhelp:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b htmlhelp $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/htmlhelp
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished; now you can run HTML Help Workshop with the" \
	      ".hhp project file in $(BUILDDIR)/htmlhelp."

.PHONY: qthelp
qthelp:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b qthelp $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/qthelp
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished; now you can run "qcollectiongenerator" with the" \
	      ".qhcp project file in $(BUILDDIR)/qthelp, like this:"
	@echo "# qcollectiongenerator $(BUILDDIR)/qthelp/testmodule.qhcp"
	@echo "To view the help file:"
	@echo "# assistant -collectionFile $(BUILDDIR)/qthelp/testmodule.qhc"

.PHONY: applehelp
applehelp:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b applehelp $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/applehelp
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished. The help book is in $(BUILDDIR)/applehelp."
	@echo "N.B. You won't be able to view it unless you put it in" \
	      "~/Library/Documentation/Help or install it in your application" \
	      "bundle."

.PHONY: devhelp
devhelp:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b devhelp $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/devhelp
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished."
	@echo "To view the help file:"
	@echo "# mkdir -p $$HOME/.local/share/devhelp/testmodule"
	@echo "# ln -s $(BUILDDIR)/devhelp $$HOME/.local/share/devhelp/testmodule"
	@echo "# devhelp"

.PHONY: epub
epub:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b epub $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/epub
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished. The epub file is in $(BUILDDIR)/epub."

.PHONY: epub3
epub3:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b epub3 $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/epub3
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished. The epub3 file is in $(BUILDDIR)/epub3."

.PHONY: latex
latex:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b latex $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/latex
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished; the LaTeX files are in $(BUILDDIR)/latex."
	@echo "Run \`make' in that directory to run these through (pdf)latex" \
	      "(use \`make latexpdf' here to do that automatically)."

.PHONY: latexpdf
latexpdf:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b latex $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/latex
	@echo "Running LaTeX files through pdflatex..."
	$(MAKE) -C $(BUILDDIR)/latex all-pdf
	@echo "pdflatex finished; the PDF files are in $(BUILDDIR)/latex."

.PHONY: latexpdfja
latexpdfja:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b latex $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/latex
	@echo "Running LaTeX files through platex and dvipdfmx..."
	$(MAKE) -C $(BUILDDIR)/latex all-pdf-ja
	@echo "pdflatex finished; the PDF files are in $(BUILDDIR)/latex."

.PHONY: text
text:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b text $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/text
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished. The text files are in $(BUILDDIR)/text."

.PHONY: man
man:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b man $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/man
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished. The manual pages are in $(BUILDDIR)/man."

.PHONY: texinfo
texinfo:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b texinfo $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/texinfo
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished. The Texinfo files are in $(BUILDDIR)/texinfo."
	@echo "Run \`make' in that directory to run these through makeinfo" \
	      "(use \`make info' here to do that automatically)."

.PHONY: info
info:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b texinfo $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/texinfo
	@echo "Running Texinfo files through makeinfo..."
	make -C $(BUILDDIR)/texinfo info
	@echo "makeinfo finished; the Info files are in $(BUILDDIR)/texinfo."

.PHONY: gettext
gettext:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b gettext $(I18NSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/locale
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished. The message catalogs are in $(BUILDDIR)/locale."

.PHONY: changes
changes:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b changes $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/changes
	@echo
	@echo "The overview file is in $(BUILDDIR)/changes."

.PHONY: linkcheck
linkcheck:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b linkcheck $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/linkcheck
	@echo
	@echo "Link check complete; look for any errors in the above output " \
	      "or in $(BUILDDIR)/linkcheck/output.txt."

.PHONY: doctest
doctest:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b doctest $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/doctest
	@echo "Testing of doctests in the sources finished, look at the " \
	      "results in $(BUILDDIR)/doctest/output.txt."

.PHONY: coverage
coverage:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b coverage $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/coverage
	@echo "Testing of coverage in the sources finished, look at the " \
	      "results in $(BUILDDIR)/coverage/python.txt."

.PHONY: xml
xml:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b xml $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/xml
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished. The XML files are in $(BUILDDIR)/xml."

.PHONY: pseudoxml
pseudoxml:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b pseudoxml $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/pseudoxml
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished. The pseudo-XML files are in $(BUILDDIR)/pseudoxml."

.PHONY: dummy
dummy:
	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b dummy $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/dummy
	@echo
	@echo "Build finished. Dummy builder generates no files."

test_extension.py

from six import class_types

from sphinx.ext.autodoc import ClassDocumenter
from testmodule import Foo


class MyClassDocumenter(ClassDocumenter):
    objtype = 'myclass'
    priority = 20  # higher priority than ClassDocumenter

    @classmethod
    def can_document_member(cls, member, membername, isattr, parent):
        print('checking if can document', member)
        return isinstance(member, class_types) and issubclass(member, Foo)

    def get_doc(self, encoding=None, ignore=1):
        doc = super(MyClassDocumenter, self).get_doc(encoding, ignore)

        # do something to modify the output documentation
        doc[0].insert(0, "ADD SOMETHING TO THE DOC")
        return doc
                      


def setup(app):
    app.add_autodocumenter(MyClassDocumenter)

testmodule.py

"""Test Module"""

class Foo(object):
    """A foo object"""
    def bar(x):
        """do a bar thing"""
        return x